


Like a Mind Reader

by kirasha



Category: Tin Man (2007)
Genre: Established Relationship, F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-07-10
Updated: 2008-07-10
Packaged: 2017-10-29 00:26:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,560
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/313818
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kirasha/pseuds/kirasha
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>As far as DG is concerned men are infuriating and unfathomable...and there's one in particular who baffles her completely.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Like a Mind Reader

**Author's Note:**

> This is utterly fluffy, which could probably be expected as it was inspired by the song _How Does She Know_ from  Enchanted and liberal sprinklings of influence from Princess Diaries as well. This is what happens when Kirasha gets ill and spends the day in bed with fluffy movies and fanfic.

The first explosion startled Ambrose from his calculations on the velocity of a...well, something very important that he would remember as soon as he diverted this new catastrophe!

But, glancing around the lab, already making a mental list of gadgets and experiments that might have caused such a reaction, a second explosion drew his attention to the window and he quickly realized the disaster did not, for once, originate within his lab. The fading flash of light from the gardens outside his window would seem to confirm it. Hurrying over to said window, curiosity drawing him away from his work, he spotted DG in a part of the garden Ambrose himself often liked to visit for it's seclusion. Surrounded by hedges on all sides, it was only visible from the windows of the topmost floor of the nearest wing of the palace -- which just happened to contain Ambrose's newly renovated labs, therefore providing him a private place to ponder solutions to new problems when the lab grew to be too much. Perhaps it was a hold-over from his days as 'Glitch', but Ambrose had discovered he sometimes preferred to be outdoors to stuck in his lab.

Apparently, tonight DG felt the same.

Watching her reach down and pluck a bouquet of flowers from a small pile at her feet, Ambrose squeaked in a most undignified manner and raced down to the garden as a third explosion rattled the window glass.

A fourth bouquet was shattered by a burst of DG's magic as Ambrose entered the garden.

"Something bothering you, doll?"

DG jumped, presumably having not heard his approach over her own exploding flowers. Ambrose caught her sigh of relief and deducted she must consider him a 'safe' person to be found by while blowing up flowers, as she reached for another bunch from the dwindling pile at her feet.

"Men are infuriating idiots," she declared before promptly blushing and adding sheepishly, "Present company excepted, of course."

"Of course." Ambrose smirked, eyeing the flowers in her hand with undisguised amusement. "Was there one man in particular who earned your ire? An unwanted suitor, perhaps?"

"Or twenty," DG admitted wryly.

Humming noncommittally in response, Ambrose nodded. He suspected he knew precisely where the trouble lay, having been similarly afflicted himself not long ago. A stone bench stood nearby and he motioned for DG to join him as he sat down.

"Twenty unwanted suitors? Or one wayward suitor who isn't doing what a normal suitor should?" Palace gossip was constantly abuzz with news of the 'anti-courtship' between the youngest princess and the leader of her personal guard detail. As the reinstated top advisor to the royal family, Ambrose considered it his job to keep informed on what the staff was saying about them.

The maids knew everything, after all.

"You can't call him a suitor when all he does is glower or yell at me," DG grumbled. "I don't think he even really likes me much."

"I'm sure that's not true." Ambrose laid a comforting hand over her two where she was fiddling with them in her lap. "One has only to watch him to see he cares."

"I received a dozen birthday bouquets today, seven boxes of chocolate, more jewelry than I've ever seen in my life, and the only thing I got from him was a gruff 'Careful, Princess' when I dropped one of the ugly broaches and he picked it up."

"What did you expect?" Ambrose smiled softly, trying and failing to hold back a warm chuckle. "Still, he tells you every day he loves you."

A gentle rustle of leaves from the other side of the hedge caught his attention briefly, then was dismissed as the wind.

"He's never said a word to me."

"Maybe not aloud. But he's telling you, doll. No mistake about that."

The look the princess gave him was the same doubtful look he remembered from their initial meeting in a cage high above the forest floor.

"There are all kinds of love." Ambrose nodded towards the remain floral mound. "Flowers and jewelry and flattery, that is the love of courtiers. They will adore you for the power you wield, the position you can give them. Some will genuinely like you in their way, while others will only pay you the lip service your title demands. There will be pretty compliments and offers of champagne at balls, and then they will leave you to stand alone as they swirl others around the dance floor."

Ambrose had not recognized when he began describing his own past, but DG merely nodded in commiseration, as though already jaded from the same experience herself. Two years of peace and she was still a country girl at heart, suffering the trip-traps of a life at court for her family's sake. Ambrose could empathize. Since becoming Glitch, he seemed to have awakened a taste for simpler pleasures even after the return of his memories.

"Your young man, now. Well, he shows a different love. You see it in the way his eyes are always watching you for as long as you're in the same room together. And, you know it's not creepy because he's always there to hold you steady when you stumble, a warm presence at your elbow when you need it, but fading to the background when you need privacy as well. Somehow he always manages to see you safely to your door each night, just in case, even though there's no place safer for you than the palace and he doesn't need to always be watching out for you and protecting you. Yet, at the same time, he does. He will never send you flowers or sweets. But, when all you want is to be alone to think for a change, he'll be the one running interference and keeping all the others at bay so you have your peace of mind for that moment.

"And yes, he will yell at you often, usually when he thinks you're about to do something foolhardy that could get you hurt. It will drive you batty, I guarantee that, and you'll want to lash out. But it isn't because he doesn't think you're capable. If you look closely, you'll see how soft his eyes are, maybe catch the slightest tremble of his lower lip or a twitching of his jaw that betrays what he _really_ fears -- that you are so capable, you won't need him to protect you. And, if you don't need his protection, how could you ever need him for anything when you're so much 'better' than he?"

Another rustle of wind through the hedge brought Ambrose out of his reverie and he blushed, realizing he'd let himself get carried away, words taking him for a run well past the word of friendly advice he'd intended. DG was staring at him, wide-eyed, clearly shocked at how poetic he had allowed himself to wax, he thought.

"Yes, well..." Out of habit, he scratched nervously at the place where his zipper had once been.

"How do you know all that?" Surprise had to delight in those clear blue eyes and he thought he recognized a flicker of the same smug, calculating grin her mother often wore in council. "I've been trying to figure him out for months and you...you...!"

"Boy Scout Syndrome runs in that family," Ambrose laughed. "Like father, like son."

"Is that so?" The corners of her mouth turned upward into the first smile she'd worn that night.

"Would I lie to my favorite princess?" Smiling fondly, Ambrose sobered for a moment. "I'm not supposed to tell anyone, but I have it on excellent authority he practically ordered his father to assign him as the head of your personal security team. Didn't trust anyone else with your safety...not even his dad."

"I think I should go find him, apologize for ignoring him earlier."

"I'm sure he's nearby."

The princess stood, hastily straightening the long skirt of her birthday gown before leaning over to gift Ambrose with a soft kiss on the cheek.

"Thanks, Glitch."

"Any time, doll," he murmured softly to her retreating form.

The night was pleasant and the garden was quiet now that there were no further exploding bouquets. Rather than rush back to the calculations that had the audacity to not compute in the way he wished them to, Ambrose remained sitting in the garden a while longer, just staring after the princess and listening to the breeze rustle through the hedge.

"Boy Scout Syndrome runs in my family, hm?" The slow drawl behind him startled Ambrose out of his musings. It took only a fraction of a moment for his look of surprise to slide into a sly smirk. Turning his head, he eyed the imposing blonde form standing at his side.

After all he'd just been telling DG, Ambrose really shouldn’t have been shocked to find his lover keeping watch again.

"Indeed it does, my dear Wyatt."

Rising from the bench, Ambrose closed the short distance between them to wrap his arms possessively around Cain's neck. The other man's arms wound tightly around his waist and Ambrose sighed happily into the soft, slow kiss that followed.

"Luckily for you," he breathed as they pulled far enough apart to gaze at each other without going cross-eyed, "Boy Scout Syndrome is extremely sexy."

  
_fin_   



End file.
